Proposals to remove up to 11million litres of sludge from Mill Pond to turn it into a community space in Uffculme have been unveiled at Coldharbour Mill.

Project Splash aims to regenerate the highly overgrown Mill Pond and Leat at Coldharbour Mill Museum; restore its capability to drive the Mill’s waterwheel and spinning machines and the vital, uninterrupted flow for the steam engines.

Those backing the scheme say it will create a lasting, educational and wildlife-rich linkage for the heritage landscape of the Culm Valley, extend the tourist potential for the area and will be a free access area for the local community and visitors to the Mill.

Ben Fox with a display showing visitors what Project Splash has to offer

Ben Fox, who is the Project Coordinator for Project Splash said the scheme would cost up to £2million and is part of a wider scheme to provide £25million of improvements to the centre in the next decade.

Mr Fox said that Mill Pond was one-third of the Mill’s story: “The water is so important for the waterwheel and the steam power, so hence in the sketches, the waterwheel is picked out as being a key aspect.

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“The Mill has a licence to draw out a certain amount of water, and because it’s only a certain amount, you need a big head of water for when there is potentially not so much rainfall. The whole of Mill Pond at the moment is, however, completely overgrown.”

A study by English Heritage showed an Ordinance Survey picture showing the pond in 1834. Today the Mill owns the river from the Great Weir down to Uffculme bridge.

Mr Fox said: “The Mill is all about heritage and the restoration. Most of Mill Pond is in existence already, so it’s all about reinstating what is there. Historic England and English Heritage, for example, are going to want to see the restoration done sympathetically and in a way which tells our story. It’s a third of the story, so when people visit the Mill, they can come and visit Mill Pond and see how important the water was.

“We’re also hoping to be successful in winning funding to be able to introduce a hydroelectric system. We can show how the Mill was powered 200 years ago and how it can be powered today. Hopefully, a hydroelectric system can provide electricity for the whole Mill including our tenants and all the mill’s needs, so then it’s like going full circle.”

Mill Pond is an acre and a half, and the museum would have to remove 11million litres of sludge.

“It may turn out that we’re not able to achieve what we’ve set out to do here and we have to have a greater flow of water through one side to create a bigger bank. What we want to be able to do is manage it.”

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After already receiving £10,000 of funding, work has begun to enable access onto the site. Those removing scrub and undergrowth have already discovered earlier engineering including sluice gates and wall retention.

“It’s quite an exciting project, but we’re mindful that downstream we have got other people who are reliant on the water flow and things like that, so it all has to be managed holistically. It can’t just be done with no thought of the local community,” Mr Fox said.

“It will also be open access to all eventually. There’s a small area which is going to have a BBQ and a bench with more seating facilities. As we grow and volunteer numbers increase, we’ll be able to clear more, do more work and gradually open out more areas.

Currently, funding has come from the Blackdown Hills Natural Futures Project, the Sustainable Development Fund, the Lottery, DEFRA and Tesco Bags for Help.

As well as Project Splash, other projects currently in the pipeline include an overhaul of the café and increasing the levels of facilities for visitors.

“As a whole, the Mill needs to raise tens of millions because these buildings take a lot of looking after,” Mr Fox said.

“Investment into things like Project Splash will enable the Mill to be sustainable for generations to come because we’ll be able to have more facilities for visitors, whether it a country park, or cafes.

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“We are hopefully looking at completing our vision in less than ten years, but within five years we would like to see some dramatic changes as we are looking to build up visitor numbers quite dramatically. We’ve got some new ideas for how the place may look one day; we want to give the café area a new uplifting look, so it’s using the various aspects of the Mill. We can use each section of the mill to be sustainable, but it needs that investment to pull to the visitor numbers up.”

Coldharbour Mill has just made an application for a brown sign on the M5 Motorway. However, Mr Fox said it is difficult to get the right signage if they do not have the right amount of visitor numbers.

He said: “It’s a bit chicken and egg, but we’re putting in a business case at the moment, so it’s just making the environment crisper, cleaner, but not losing that traditional cloths and wool, and becoming guardians of the traditional skill set.

“Eden Westwood, for example, would be welcomed by the mill. Tim Smit is a fan of the Mill; he knows our family history from the Cornish connection as the family derived from areas he knows and some well-known gardens there. If they did get permission for Eden Westwood to go ahead, although there will be an adverse impact while the work is done, the area would receive a great boost because Tim Smit does things exceedingly well and sympathetically.

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“Currently we’re one of the biggest attractions in the Blackdown Hills. The Mill is an important part of local history and even national history because of many aspects of the Mill, whether it’s the waterwheels or the archive, or panel systems, there are not many other examples. English Heritage is quoted as saying it’s one of the finest examples of industrial textile complexes in the country and it’s wonderful that organisations are happy to support us and get the word out there.”

Mr Fox who also coordinates the drive for volunteers added: “Hopefully most of our volunteers will come from the Uffculme area and surrounding towns and are interested in heritage and biodiversity – it’ll be their sort of bag.

“Volunteers, we are about to encourage people to get involved with a £25million transformation of the whole of the Mill. Several projects are going on, from educational programmes to the archives, so we’ll be doing several projects, with three or four key projects, all building towards applications for the larger funds, and showing that this is a good horse to back.”

“We have about 50 volunteers at the moment and have increased volunteers by about 15 per cent over the last nine months. We have a wonderful bunch of people who have been here for some time, and we’re looking to recruit another 50 as they are hugely important.”

Volunteering opportunities and how you can help can be viewed on the Coldharbour Mill website.